The Shadow Labyrinth is one of four instances in Auchindoun. It is occupied almost entirely by orcs and demons from the Burning Legion, such as felguards and shivarras. The instance comes to an end with a confrontation against the essence of sound. The instance should take about 2 hours plus to complete.

Access into the instance (through the south end of Auchindoun) is beyond a locked door. Entry requires one person in the party to possess the Shadow Labyrinth Key, or a rogue with a lockpicking skill of 350. The key can be picked up from a box after killing Talon King Ikiss (who also drops the key), the last boss of Sethekk Halls, which is also an instance wing of Auchindoun.

The entire group does not need to have the Shadow Labyrinth Key. One person with the key can open the door for the rest of the group. It is also possible for no one in the group to have the key, nor have a rogue. A player outside of the group can open the door, and the group can freely pass through it until it closes. Also, a player from inside the door can pull a nearby lever to instantly open it. An alternative method is dying in close proximity to the door, then resurrecting on the other side of it. Unequip your armor to prevent durability loss.

The minimum required level to enter is 65.

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Normal trash mobs give 12 reputation to Lower City per kill (15 in Heroic); larger mobs, such as Fel Overseers and Malicious Instructors, give 24 (30 in Heroic). All bosses give 120 reputation (250 in Heroic mode). An average run, killing only the mobs needed to reach the end, gives approximately 2,000 reputation.

Ambassador Hellmaw – is kept banished by a number of Shadow Council minions in the second large room in the Shadow Labyrinth. Defeating the last group of banishers frees him. He has an area-effect fear with about a 40-yard range, and a nature-based venom spit that also reduces armor.

Blackheart the Inciter – his primary special ability is "incite chaos," which is like a mind control on all party members, who then fight each other using all available cooldowns.

Grandmaster Vorpil – calls for aid when attacked, causing voidwalkers to spawn at an increasing rate. The voidwalkers move slowly to Vorpil, and when they reach him heal him and damage the party. Many consider Vorpil the most difficult boss of this instance in normal mode. In Heroic, he also has a banish ability.

Murmur – is a powerful sound-based elemental that has been summoned by the Shadow Council, who seem to be having trouble keeping him under control. Murmur does not move in combat; his special abilities include a sonic boom area-damage effect, a spell that causes an explosion centered on a target player character, and when no player characters are in melee range, a debuff increasing vulnerability to nature damage. In heroic mode, he also has an ability that causes damage to those outside the range of his sonic boom, and the explosion effect teleports all players to the target.

See the individual boss pages for more detailed information and strategies.

Throughout this instance, careful pulling may be required to avoid fighting more than one group at a time, though less so than prior to patch 2.1. Even with good pulling, there are some difficult groups of 5 or 6 enemies and good crowd control is essential. Keep the cultists off the healers in your group, and take down the caster enemies first. In heroic mode, most trash is on an approximately 8 hour respawn timer.

Hits for 640; ~16k health. Casts Heal to heal itself and other mobs. They have a buff called Shadow Defense (1-hr duration) which absorbs 2750 to 3200 shadow damage that can be applied to members of the party when the Acolyte is mind controlled.

Hits for ~740; 25k health. Heal is 3 second interruptible cast and heals for 10000-13000.

Spawns during the pulls prior to Blackheart the Inciter. Assassins appear to spawn periodically; the longer you spend in the entry to Blackheart's room, the more times you will see them spawn. There are reports of them spawning two at a time on occasion.

Very fast, hard attack speed. Also has a Fixate ability that keeps the mob on that Fixated person for a short amount of time and doubles attack speed. The only way to get it off is with taunt or a similar ability.

Shadowbolt, Shape of the Beast( time between attacks decreased, attack power increased, cannot cast spells) (Shapeshifts the caster into a Wrath Hound, like a Urvous or Magmadar style two headed fel dog) at low health. The buff can be spellstolen, or dispelled, and then cancelled. The zealot will not recast it.

Hits very hard, Intimidating Shout (AoE fear), random Charge, self heal at low hp, very resistant, 76k life, immune to Disarm and all slowing effects, CC immune (hint: if you die in midcombat, release and run back). Pull well away from other groups to avoid being feared into them.

Mortal Strike for ~6000-8000 damage (can oneshot clothies if unlucky), Uppercut for 1600, Normal for 1400. On heroic they no longer charge when they fear their target. Immune to Enslave Demon

Hits fairly hard melee, has an AoE Shadow Nova that hits between 1-1.5k, and a debuff, Mark of Malice, which increases melee damage taken. Immune to Enslave Demon and Banish. Also cannot be shield bashed to interrupt casting. She is notorious for occasionally critting a crit-immune tank. This may be related to the Mark of Malice.

Disarms main tank. The AoE Shadow Nova can be interrupted only in heroic mode.

There are several very difficult pulls in the room with the second boss, Blackheart the Inciter. One viable strategy to thin the mass of trash mobs to more-manageable pulls involves a priest, another party member that can resurrect, and everyone save the priest staying back in another room to prevent aggroing. The priest mind controls a single mob forcing the others to attack and kill it. The priest will get killed, but they can be resurrected to mind control again. Since the priest is going to die, they can remove all items that can take durability damage. This may be slower than traditional pulling, but it is highly effective.

There are also several trash pulls just before Murmur. After the first two guards, these are in rows of four, with mages in between. If you pull a row while a mage is between that row and the next, both the mage and the next row are likely to come along. Any CC is very helpful. Pulling far back and using timed fear bombs can also help.

The best way to handle these pulls is to wait for Murmur to kill the mage behind the row to be pulled. About 15 seconds after a mage dies, a new one will spawn. Use this time to pull the whole row back. Avoid using crowd control abilities like sap or sheep near where the mobs start, or the mage respawn will come out and bring the next row with it. Instead, fear or sheep the adds as far back as possible after the pull. Done correctly, this limits the pull to 4 mobs. Once each row is killed, the 'filler' mage stops respawning.